HIS BIRTH AND YOUTH

He was born on a Wednesday of the year 1394 (of the hegira of his beloved ancestor), corresponding to 1974 of the Christian era, in the region of Tamsamane, located in the Moroccan Rif, whose people are known for their faith and bravery. It is in this place that he spent his childhood and youth. His childhood was marked by seriousness in all situations, not by idleness, playfulness nor laziness. He grew up normally under the guidance of his parents in religious practice. It is worth mentioning that his uniqueness was already apparent at that time. He had true visions that occurred in the sensory reality (Al-Mulk) just as he had seen them in the Malakut. He did his primary education in the city of al Hoceima, then he traveled to the city of Taza to finish his secondary education. Allah the Wise decided that he should interrupt his education to begin his apprenticeship in the great world, until he carried the banner of sanctity. Soon after he stopped his studies, he isolated himself from his family and friends. He began to travel throughout Morocco, visiting many cities, treading on distant lands, walking between mountains and valleys. Once the sun of his inner sight lit up, he spoke about that period of his life saying: “I traveled between the mountains but it is with Allah that I had left my luggage”. During this period, he traveled from one mausoleum of a saint to another, sleeping wherever the night caught him and sometimes he took the earth as his bed and the sky as his blanket. He said, may Allah be pleased with him, “I was serving fate and I did not know it. When I invoked, the True One answered my invocation. When I sought, I found. Creatures would turn to me wherever I went.” His absence from his family and his period of obliteration lasted ten years, without his family hearing from him or him hearing from them. When the period of his deletion ended, he returned to his family and friends again so that Allah would fulfill His Command.